Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2013 Teaching Turtle Island Quartet Music: Selected String Orchestra Pieces for High School and College Musicians Sally Hernandez Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC TEACHING TURTLE ISLAND QUARTET MUSIC: SELECTED STRING ORCHESTRA PIECES FOR HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE MUSICIANS By SALLY HERNANDEZ A Treatise submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Music Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2013 Sally Hernandez defended this treatise on October 30, 2013. The members of the supervisory committee were: Pamela Ryan Professor Directing Treatise John Geringer University Representative Bruce Holzman Committee Member Melanie Punter Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the treatise has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii To José Hernández, my dance partner in life iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to express gratitude to the members of the Turtle Island Quartet, past and present, for creating such wonderful and daring music and for taking time out of their busy schedules to assist with this paper. The author is grateful to Nick Geist for his technical expertise with the musical excerpts and music librarian, Misti Shaw, for her help with diacritical markings and footnotes. Thank you to those who gave me continual love and support, my family and friends, especially my mother, sister, and husband. I am appreciative of my friends, Kristin Geist and Rebecca Rhoads, for enduring encouragement and to the members of the “ABD Club” who helped ensure my future ineligibility into the club. Thank you to my mentor, teacher, and friend Dr. Pamela Ryan, for guiding me patiently and fostering a love for the viola in all her students. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. vi List of Musical Examples .............................................................................................................. vii List of Terms ................................................................................................................................... x Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... xii 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1 Preface ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 3 2. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TURTLE ISLAND QUARTET ............................................. 11 3. THE STRING ORCHESTRA GENRE AND LITERATURE IN PEDAGOGICAL USE .... 30 4. AUTHOR’S ANALYSIS OF TEACHING PREPARATION IN WORKS BY MEMBERS OF THE TURTLE ISLAND QUARET FOR STRING QUARTET ............................................ 40 Notes to Teachers .................................................................................................................... 40 Blue Book ................................................................................................................................ 47 Dexteriors ................................................................................................................................ 55 Grant Wood ............................................................................................................................. 60 Spider Dreams ......................................................................................................................... 68 Mr. Twitty’s Chair ................................................................................................................... 77 5. AUTHOR’S ANALYSIS OF TEACHING PREPARATION IN WORKS BY MEMBERS OF THE TURTLE ISLAND QUARET FOR STRING ORCHESTRA ....................................... 85 Blues for Oaktown ................................................................................................................... 85 Skylife ...................................................................................................................................... 91 Tremors .................................................................................................................................... 98 Bach’s Lunch ......................................................................................................................... 102 Steel City Strut ...................................................................................................................... 106 12th of December ................................................................................................................... 115 Gettysburg ............................................................................................................................. 124 6. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 130 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................. 133 A. IRB EXEMPTION ................................................................................................................ 133 B. COPYRIGHT LETTERS ...................................................................................................... 136 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 142 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ....................................................................................................... 151 v LIST OF TABLES 1 Turtle Island Quartet Membership Timeline, by Instrument and Year ............................. 29 2 Form and Structure of Blue Book ...................................................................................... 51 3 Form and Structure of Dexteriors ...................................................................................... 57 4 Form and Structure of Grant Wood ................................................................................... 63 5 Form and Structure of Spider Dreams ............................................................................... 71 6 Form and Structure of Mr. Twitty’s Chair ......................................................................... 80 7 Form and Structure of Blues for Oaktown ......................................................................... 88 8 Form and Structure of Skylife ............................................................................................ 94 9 Form and Structure of Tremors ....................................................................................... 100 10 Form and Structure of Bach’s Lunch ............................................................................... 104 11 Form and Structure of Steel City Strut ............................................................................ 108 12 Form and Structure of 12th of December ......................................................................... 118 13 Form and Structure of Gettysburg ................................................................................... 127 vi LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES 1 Darol Anger: Blue Book, mm. 20-24. ................................................................................ 53 2 Darol Anger: Blue Book, cello, mm. 49-56. ...................................................................... 53 3 Darol Anger: Blue Book, mm. 61-62. ................................................................................ 53 4 Darol Anger: Blue Book, mm. 72-75. ................................................................................ 54 5 Darol Anger: Dexteriors, violins, mm. 66-69. .................................................................. 59 6 Darol Anger: Dexteriors, viola and cello, mm. 32-35. ...................................................... 59 7 Darol Anger: Dexteriors, violin I and cello, mm. 42-43. .................................................. 60 8 Darol Anger: Grant Wood, violin I, mm. 32-36. ............................................................... 66 9 Darol Anger: Grant Wood, viola and cello, mm. 48-51. ................................................... 66 10 Darol Anger: Grant Wood, mm. 66-69. ............................................................................ 67 11 Darol Anger: Grant Wood, mm. 143-146. ........................................................................ 67 12 David Balakrishnan: Spider Dreams, viola, mm. 18-19. .................................................. 73 13 David Balakrishnan: Spider Dreams, violin I, mm. 28-29. ............................................... 73 14 David Balakrishnan: Spider Dreams, violin II and viola, mm. 36-37. .............................. 74 15 David Balakrishnan: Spider Dreams, violin I, mm. 73-74. ............................................... 74 16 David Balakrishnan: Spider Dreams, violins, mm. 115-118. ...........................................